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Stamkos close to being cleared to play

Friday, 02.21.2014 / 2:50 AM
NHL.com

"It felt great out there," Stamkos told the Tampa Bay Times. "The best it's felt."

Stamkos attempted to return from a broken right tibia sustained Nov. 11 in time to play for Canada at the 2014 Sochi Olympics but could not. He said the extra time off has been a great benefit.

"It did feel good, but it feels even better now," Stamkos said. "Maybe I wasn't as far along as I thought, knowing how much better it has felt now that I have kept working on it and taking a couple of days off. It's just going to continually get better, and that's positive knowing it's doing that."

Tampa Bay plays Thursday at the Nashville Predators. Stamkos will have an X-ray Monday, the newspaper said.

"If you asked him if he could play right now he'd most definitely say he could," coach Jon Cooper said. "There were a lot of times where he said he was OK but he was still feeling the effects of something, but I don't see that anymore."

Goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis, who made 55 saves for Latvia in a 2-1 Olympic quarterfinal loss to Canada, is likely to join the Lightning rather than return to Syracuse of the American Hockey League, Cooper said. Lightning backup Anders Lindback (lower body) has practiced the past two days but his return is undetermined.

"It worked out well that everyone had been off the ice for a while before today, and hopefully the next little while will play out the way I want it to, and I'll be back soon," said McQuaid, who is uncertain to return to play Wednesday.

New Jersey Devils forward Ryane Clowe did not practice due to soreness. Clowe missed 32 games this season with a concussion before returning Dec. 27.

"Pretty natural for the first day back," coach Peter DeBoer told NJ.com. "Nothing I'm worried about, just not going to take any chances with things. You always deal with these things coming back off a break like we had."

"I didn't see," coach Bob Hartley said. "I guess that from what the players … told me, he kind of caught a rut and he just went and basically fell face first into the boards. He was in pretty big pain. Obviously we'll probably have a report for you guys [Friday] morning."

NHL and the NHL Shield are registered trademarks and NHL Mobile name and logo, NHL GameCenter and Unlimited NHL are trademarks of the National Hockey League. NHL and NHL team marks are the property of the NHL and its teams.